Small Business

FBT exemptions for work-related electronic devices From 1 April 2016, your small business clients can provide their employees with multiple work-related devices without incurring a fringe benefits tax (FBT) liability. The devices can include: laptops tablets calculators GPS navigation receivers mobile phones. Your clients can purchase the devices at any time, but can't give them to their employees until 1 April 2016 or they will be liable for FBT. This benefit may be in addition to or part of the employee’s salary or wages package. To be eligible, your client's business must have an annual turnover of less than $2 million. You should [...]

Budget 2015 Summary: Jobs and Small Business Source: http://www.budget.gov.au/2015-16/content/highlights/jobsandsmallbusiness.html ACCELERATED DEPRECIATION All small businesses will get an immediate tax deduction for any individual assets they buy costing less than $20,000. (Currently, the threshold sits at $1,000). This $20,000 limit applies to each individual item. Small businesses can apply this $20,000 rule to as many individual items as they wish. These arrangements start from Budget night and continue until the end of June 2017. Further information on accelerated depreciation is available on the ATO website. TAX CUTS The Government is reducing the tax rate for the [...]

Why register a security interest on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR)? Businesses can improve the way they manage credit risk by registering their security interest in the goods they supply or lease on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR). If you do not register your security interest and a debtor goes into bankruptcy or is placed into liquidation, your position will be like that of an unsecured creditor. Secured creditors will be ahead of you when payments are made or assets distributed. The Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) contains rules for determining priority between security interests in the [...]

Starting a business? Choosing your business structure There are four main business structures commonly used by businesses in Australia: sole trader partnership company trust Different structures will affect the way we tax your business income. The structure you choose may affect: the tax you are liable to pay asset protection ongoing costs level of complexity. Click here to view the pricing on Structure Packages Whichever structure you choose, make sure you understand the responsibilities that go with that structure. Typically, costs and complexity increase as you move from a sole trader to a [...]

Small business benchmarks Small business benchmarks update: Benchmarks have been updated with data from the 2010–11 financial year. Benchmarks are updated annually using the latest available income tax data. Small business benchmarks are financial ratios developed from information provided to us by businesses on their tax returns and activity statements. You can use the benchmarks to help you compare your performance against similar businesses in your industry. ATO uses benchmarks and other risk indicators to identify businesses that may be avoiding their tax obligations by not reporting some or all of their income. If a business does not have evidence [...]